Thanks for the clarification. Without those crucial connecting details in
the census, it seemed like a stab in the dark. A key thing to note about
Hans and Gerta is that they were teen-aged tjenestefolk in <neighboring>
parishes. Of course, at this time it was not at all uncommon for young
adults to travel distances to the cities and meet there.

The Hans Larsen and the Gerta Marie Petersen were the right age as I knew
their full birth dates from Australian sources.
I then searched the online church books till I found the ones I have now. I
also knew Gerta's mother's name from Australian records which further
confirmed I had her right record.
I may not have the right Hans Larsen, but I believe it is likely.

Sorry I was so brief. I know now that this Hans Larsen is the one I am
looking for as the birth date is exactly the same as I got from a descendant
in Australia. Here is the obituary in 1932:

*****
Mr. Hans Larsen, who died in a private hospital in Wowan, had been an
esteemed resident of the Dawson Valley for nearly 16 years. Mr. Larsen was
born at Hersoe, Denmark, in 1873, and was left an orphan when only nine
years of age. He did farm work and was apprenticed to a pump fitter,
afterwards going into the building trade. In 1901 [should be 1900] he
migrated to Australia and worked in the Bundaberg district and on the
Darling Downs. Then he went in for dairy farming on the share system and
later started as a builder and contractor.

In 1916 he came to the Dawson Valley, farming first at Dululu and then at
Wura. While his family looked after the farm he undertook a number of
building contracts. Ill-health compelled him to give up this work about a
year ago. He is survived by his widow and a family of five sons and three
daughters, all grown up. The sons are Messrs. Louis (Wowan), Henry, Edward,
Sophus and William (Wura), Mesdames A. F. Rettke (Yangan) and E. W. Wenck
(Wondai), and Miss Daisy Larsen (Wura). The last sad rites were conducted by
the Rev. Mr. Ranwell, of the Church of England, while Bro. M. Curry read the
Masonic burial service.
*****

Gerta Marie Petersen was his wife. I also had her birth date already, and
that she was from Odense. I focused on Odense in the census records for this
reason.

Gerta and Hans married somewhere in Denmark and had a child Emmy Johanna
Marie born 30 July 1898, also somewhere in Denmark before emigrating in
1900.

In the situations where there is little information about the origin of an
emigrant, it very much helps both to provide ALL the information known about

that person and their family and to identify the source of that information.

That way other clues can possibly be used to suggest other places to look
and the credibilty of the "known" information can be evaluated so we know
how much it can be relied upon for matching with other possibilities.

You gave information from an obituary for Hans Larsen. Was the information
about his wife and child also from the obituary? And the emigration as
well?? (Is that the date they arrived in Australia?) I would expect that
this did not all come from the obituary. Also, death certificates and
obituaries are notorious for having inaccurate or garbled information
because the people alive at the time were probably not present or not adults

at the time of the earlier events they are describing, particularly if they
happened in a different country.

For this reason, "Hersoe" may be a garbled rendering of the actual place.
"oe" is sometimes used to represent the actual Danish letter "ø". And "sø"
is a very common suffix for place names, meaning "lake" or "sea". However,
there is no obvious place "Hersø" in Krabsens place-name database. There
are entries for places starting with "Hørsø" or "Horsø". If the family
moved away from this place when Hans was young, it is also possible that he
himself only has a vague or incorrect recollection of its name.

You appear to have focused on some parishes for the births of Hans and
Greta. Do you have other information that led you to those parishes?

For Søndersø parish: (I do not know if Arne transcribed this, since I am
not receiving his messages.)

More information about finding your Danish kin at our website: http://www.danishkin.com/
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